Movie notes: Fun with video

Express-News film critic Larry Ratliff has all of today’s major DVD releases covered. I’m always amused by the slew of other nuggets waiting to be unearthed amid the other titles coming out today:

(Courtesy image)

Like it or not, ‘Gumby: The Movie’ (1995) appears on DVD today.

• ‘Gumby: The Movie’ (1995): As a Gumby fan long before Eddie Murphy ever uttered the phrase “I’m Gumby, dammit” on “Saturday Night Live,” I noted the release of this stop-motion animated flick with some interest. But what really got my attention was it being listed as a “Director’s Cut.” Really? Maybe that means there are deleted scenes, perhaps including a controversial alternate ending; a commentary track; and a making-of-”Gumby: The Movie” mini-documentary featuring hard-hitting interviews with Gumby, Pokey, Lowbelly the dog and the ever-present Blockheads. Unfortunately, it’s only a single-disc, 77-minute DVD, which doesn’t appear to leave much room for extras.

• Until I went trolling for trivia today, I had always assumed that Mae West’s famous line to Cary Grant from the 1933 movie “She Done Him Wrong” (out on DVD today) was “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime?” But according to the Internet Movie Database, it’s actually “Why don’t you come up some time and see me?” Other memorable quotes included “Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?” Six months after the film’s release, Hollywood had to deal with the new National League of Decency and the morality watchdog known as the Production Code, largely as a reaction to West.

• Stuff you can’t make up: Other new releases include “Pot in Pans: Cooking With Marijuana” (listed as “instructional/children’s” on videoeta.com), “Juicy Bubble Butts” (which probably describes itself) and “Let’s Grow Mushrooms: Complete Hands-On Guide” (which appears to be perfectly innocuous). And for folks who read Larry’s disheartening post about the whereabouts of “Zombie Strippers,” you might be able to make do with “Pot Zombies,” a horror film about stoners with a taste for human flesh that comes out next Tuesday. The tagline: “When they get the munchies, you get wasted.”